Posts Tagged Company

Would you alienate prospects attending your promotional event? Would you send people away from an event with negative impressions of your company?  How important are the little interactions?

Recently, a colleague and I registered to attend a “Solutions Showcase” in San Francisco, from a leading Telco demonstrating their latest generation smartphones.  We received confirmation and attended the event.

On arrival we were told that we were not registered. The manger was, at first, apologetic, indicating that the event had been overbooked by 20% on the expectation that there would be no shows.  After learning that the invitation had been forwarded to us by a colleague who knew we were looking for a solution for our business, he said he would do his best to seat us, but had to give priority to those invited directly by company sales people.  We were eventually invited into the event.

After some compelling demonstrations of their new smart phones, it was announced that ALL attendees would receive one of the phones with two months voice and data service along with some other giveaways in exchange for our time that morning.

When we stopped by the desk to collect the gift, we were once again directed to the manager.  He explained that as we had not been invited directly by a company salesperson, we would not be getting the gift. The whole experience was distasteful and showed the Company in a poor light. We sent a complaint letter to the office of the CEO and this was handled very well by a telephoned apology and an honoring of the commitment to provide smartphones to all attendees.

This particular company has a reputation for good service and did, ultimately, address the issue.  To a certain extent, the damage had already been done.  Even the best companies are at risk of interactions that can have a damaging effect on the company’s reputation. However, even when things go wrong, it is possible to enhance the company’s reputation by following the principles below …

1. Customer/prospect engagement is unpredictable – plan and prepare to address situations that go awry. Have a “crisis response plan” that guides company actions when the brand is threatened.
2. React quickly when the problem surfaces. Apparently, the Company knew that this event had been posted to a blog and a lot of people had registered who were not in their target demographic. This was the time to address the situation.
3. Train and empower your people to do the right thing.  There may sometimes be a cost, but over the long term this cost will be repaid many times over in customer loyalty and positive word of mouth.
4. Make great customer service a core value and drive that core value throughout the organization.

Key Takeaway: Design and implement customer experience programs that help your company avoid major (and minor) missteps and to respond rapidly when your brand is threatened.

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